


Attracting Strays

by shadowandrhyme



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, stray cats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 10:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1507523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowandrhyme/pseuds/shadowandrhyme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sid starts sending Geno picture messages. Geno repays with advice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Attracting Strays

**Author's Note:**

  * For [july_v](https://archiveofourown.org/users/july_v/gifts).



> A huge thanks to [july_v](http://archiveofourown.org/users/july_v) for the help! Best!)))))

Sid starts sending him picture messages halfway through July. Geno feels proud, because picture messages mean that Sid upgraded the awful, horrible old phone he owned. 

At first he sends pictures of hockey related things – really, Geno doesn't expect anything else. There are random shots of Consol and hockey gear and occasionally, when Geno considers himself lucky, he gets Sid's grinning face. By the time July turns into August and Geno starts missing Pittsburgh more than hating Kadar for making him work out so early, the pictures become strangely repetitive. More often than not it's just a blur of grey-ish brown and even though Geno squints at the pictures from all directions, they don't make sense. He assumes Sid's phone turned itself on and sent the pictures without Sid knowing, so he deletes and ignores them. Then he gets a few clearer shots which show an animal; Geno thinks it's a cat, and he texts Sid back a ))))))))) since he knows Sid doesn't actually care about cats, but knows Geno does. There are more pictures, but it isn't until the middle of August that Geno realises that they are pictures of the same cat.

They don't call each other. They both have busy schedule and the time difference means that one of them would have to be up at ass- o'clock, which they can't afford, but texting is okay. Sometimes it takes a few hours to get a reply, but neither Geno nor Sid mind. It's a comfortable routine. 

So it's a bit of a shock when Geno's phone starts ringing as he is getting dressed after the workout, a photo of the back of Sid's jersey popping up above the caller's number. He frowns, grabbing his phone and really hoping that it wasn't some bad news, like Sid's concussion symptoms coming back or Flower getting traded. 

“Sid?” he says as he answers the phone. 

“G,” Sid's voice sounds relieved and whiny. Geno isn't sure how Sid can make a whine out of a single letter. “I need your help.”

Geno is a little torn between laughing because did Sid realise that Geno is in Russia, and rolling his eyes. “Sid, what happen?” he asks eventually, his voice as even as he could make it.

“It won't go away.”

Geno blinks. “It?” he repeats, because “it” can be anything from a rash or pimple through concussion headache to Nealsy demanding scrambled eggs while Paulie is in the States, visiting his family. “What it?”

“The cat, Geno!” Sid snaps as if it is Geno's fault he can't read Sid's mind, and really, what cat?

“What cat?” he asks.

There is a moment of silence in the phone and Geno can almost, almost see Sid re-evaluating the situation. He would bet his – well, not his Stanley Cup ring, but maybe the gold medal from the worlds that Sid is trying to figure out how Geno couldn't get some things that were crystal clear to Sid and how he should explain it all. “The cat,” Sid says eventually. “The one I've been sending you pictures of? For the past three weeks?”

“Oh,” Geno says. “Is stray cat?”

“Yes,” Sid replies with a growing relief, the words tumbling out as if he didn't have anyone to talk to about a stray cat that decided that Sid's house was her new house. “When I came home from gym one time, it was sitting on the stairs by the front door and mewling loudly so I gave her some water and food and it reminded me of the cat you had so I gave it food a few more times and then it just wouldn't leave and it managed to get inside and now I have a cat and I didn't want to have a cat and I have no idea what to do and-”

“Sid, breathe,” Geno interrupts him because Sid is starting to sound too hysterical. There is a moment of silence when Geno can practically hear Sid force a few deep breaths. “Good,” he continues then. “Is easy, only have two option. Take cat to shelter or keep cat.”

“Oh. That's... okay. I need to think about it,” Sid says and then hangs up, leaving Geno laughing out loud.

He isn't surprised at all when a day later, he gets an email that simply says: _I'm keeping it. Help?_ That's how they start exchanging tons of emails a day, half of them being Sid's questions and a good part of the other half being Geno's demands for Sid's selfies with the cat and questions about the cat's name.. Sid doesn't tell him, though, not until Geno returns to Pittsburgh for the preseason and visits Sidney.

“Geno, this is G,” Sid says, ducking his head and blushing as he holds the small grey cat that mewls at him helplessly.

Geno falls in love with both of them.


End file.
